I've just recently got back on the water after 20 years (crewing on an SS27 @ SoPYC) and I'm looking at brushing up on the basics (heck, I couldn't even remember the right of way rules properly when I first got back on the water!). I'm looking for some good reading material that covers the basics well without treating the reader like a dummy. What texts (print or web) do people recommend?
Might I suggest a great little book called "The Art of Coarse Cruising" written by an English guy and is peppered with illustrated "Gems from the Mud Banks" such as "When Grass and Weeds Appear on the Bow, It is Time to Come About"
The guy wrote a number of books with the "Coarse" theme. The Art of Coarse Rugby, The Art of Even Coarser Rugby.
They would probably be quite tame in comparison to the behaviour of rugby players today.
I recommend a book called 'Sail and Rig Tuning' by Ivor Dedekam, available at Whitworths etc., about $33.00 Very well written and illustrated. The guides on sail trim are invaluable.
Ok, so I did the local library thing. Thin pickings, but I managed to find a couple of likely texts.
Practical Sailing Handbook by Timothy Jeffery. Covers the basics (and points out a few things we're doing very wrong) though it doesn't cover the finer points of setting sails or racing. Still, it's giving us plenty to work on.
Blue Water Sailing Manual, by Barry Pickthall. Not really looked at this one yet (not planning on any blue water stuff for a while) but a quick glance shows it does deal with trimming sails in more than enough detail to keep us going for a while ;-).
The Sailing Handbook, by Dave Cox. I'll prolly look at this one next. It looks like it gives plenty of practical advice on sail trim for beginners we could well use.
I've decided against buying a book for now, as between the library books and some great articles on www.mysailing.com.au I could already draw up a list of things we need to work on that would take more ink and parchment than I could ever lay my hands on. I also blew the Christmas budget a bit which seals the issue on that one.
With luck we'll manage to work our way up the fleet a little once we master a few more basic skills.
demo.expertusone.com/
You can also download the ISAF rules here www.sailing.org/20348.php.
Best of luck!
